One of the more irritating aspects of the disingenuous love-in that is evident during the promotion of a new album comes when the band in question hail their latest work as a "return to form". They happily belittle their previous records and inform slavering hacks that they're back to their best this time. The trouble is everyone forgets that they were saying exactly the same when promoting the previous album. R.E.M. have been doing it for decades.

Rio Ferdinand did something not dissimilar yesterday when he washed his hands of previous regimes and told the world that, under Fabio Capello, England were now a serious football side. It is hard to disagree given that, after tonight's 3-1 victory in Minsk, England have scored 14 goals in four games during their best ever start to a World Cup qualification campaign. Yet the suspicion remains that, despite the extremely high quality of England's goals tonight, they are not playing anywhere near as well as their results suggest.

It would be unwise to gloss over the significant imperfections that remain in this team. It feels apt that Capello has reduced the influence of England's Wags, because he has absolutely no qualms about winning ugly. He has made a career out of turning performances that are the merely right side of good into results that are the right side of title-winning — since Milan beat Barcelona 4-0 in 1994, anyway — and he is doing it with England. Imagine if they start playing well for the entire game.

England didn't for much of this contest, not until Wayne Rooney's second goal allowed them to swagger through the final 15 minutes and plant a deceptive memory of what, for the most part, was a very awkward game against a good Belarus side who beat Holland in their previous home qualifier for Euro 2008.

Indeed, the first half bore many of the hallmarks of Sven-Goran Eriksson's reign, particularly in the unforgivable manner in which England sat on the early lead given to them by Steven Gerrard's sublime goal. Unlike Eriksson, however, Capello clearly has a decisive influence at half-time. In this group, England's score is 2-1 in the first half and 13-2 in the second. Here they were much more assertive without the ball after letting Belarus play keep-ball in the first half.

Yet if they are to satisfy expectations that will inevitably go through the roof, there is much to repair, not least the age-old problem of Gerrard and Frank Lampard. To some, the quality of Gerrard's goal, passed exquisitely into the corner from 31 yards, ends the debate as to whether he and Lampard can play together in an orthodox 4-4-2 formation, But such debate rests on so, so much more than an isolated moment of brilliance that, at best, will be repeated every 10 games.

The truth is that Gerrard's goal — and his crafty assist for Rooney's second, tellingly delivered from a central position — were beautiful metaphors in an otherwise shoddily written short story. That's not particularly his fault, as he is not a natural left-sided midfield player, for reasons grimly evident when he missed an open goal late on by stabbing it with the wrong foot, his right. Too often he received the ball at a 45-degree angle facing his own goal, when he should have been at 90 degrees; too often he was at 90 degrees in a defensive position when he needed to be at 135 degrees. The latter would be a particular problem against better opposition.

There was an instructive moment in the 33rd minute when Rooney zig-zagged on the edge of the box and put arms out for someone to receive the ball on the left wing. Gerrard had gone wandering, as he did for much of the first half; in the eighth minute he even rocked up on the right wing. This may have been part of a prescribed tactical fluidity, but that notion sat uncomfortably both with the rigidity of his midfield peers and the established methodology of Capello.

Right-footed players can obviously thrive on the left, but those who do tend to be crafty players with sinuous movement. No matter: you suspect that Gerrard's goal will have earned him and Lampard a stay of execution. For those of the opinion that both cannot play together in a 4-4-2 (and that to play them in a 4-3-3 would compromise a much greater asset, Rooney, who was absolutely sensational and is forming a telling partnership with the admirable Emile Heskey), Gerrard's goal might be the worst thing that could have happened.

Gerrard and Lampard are one of a few issues that Capello has to resolve. Wes Brown's distribution remains inadequate at this level, while Matthew Upson and Wayne Bridge were poor stand-ins for John Terry and Ashley Cole, although with Bridge that probably owes as much to rust as anything: he has played only eight minutes of Premier League football this season.

David James must be replaced as soon as somebody capable emerges — it could be a long wait — while Theo Walcott ushered the wearyingly inevitable backlash against him slightly closer with a hare-brained performance.

Such nights are a crucial part of Walcott's learning curve, and his pace and potential are so unique in this side that there should be no question of his place being under threat — not now, not if he plays like this for the next five games. He remains, like England, a work in progress. Just as it would have been wrong to get carried away after Walcott's hat-trick in Croatia, we shouldn't hail England as world-beaters just yet.